


once upon a winter

by arenspoon (eunoias)



Series: Ufortalte [3]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hallucinations, Imaginary Friends, Imagination, Loss, Platonic Relationships, Snow and Ice, Talking Animals, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:07:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25013680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eunoias/pseuds/arenspoon
Summary: Once, in the middle of winter, Anna finds herself in the company of a peculiar boy.
Relationships: Anna (Disney) & Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood), Anna (Disney)/Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood)
Series: Ufortalte [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1803748
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	once upon a winter

**Author's Note:**

> another draft sitting way too long on the dusty shelves of unfinished works (which and is in dire need of reworking.)
> 
> anyhow, have yourselves some platonic jack/anna!

“We’ve searched every nook and cranny!”

“You’re implying that she’s not here?”

“She isn’t. That’s what we were trying to say from the start.”

“How could you possibly lose the _princess_ of Arendelle?!”

The castle then descended into chaos shortly after discovering the empty room of said princess.

Once, in the middle of the winter, Princess Anna decided to wander alone into the woods (for no apparent reason.) Or perhaps, she lost sight of the rest of her group, which _may_ or may not be on purpose when she saw her older sister emerge out of the castle gates for the first time in a _year._

In a span of said year, Anna decided to visit the graves of her beloved mother and father, with her in the end of the convoy of horses. It was difficult to bring herself back there, but she managed, even without Elsa’s presence.

As they head back from her parents’ burial grounds, her mind automatically registered the figure and she held the reins tighter. She couldn’t describe the empty and aching feeling in her chest as she was reminded of the tragic news of the ship that never returned. Nothing could’ve prepared her for it. To make things worse, her only source of comfort, Elsa, refused her company once more.

The memory of it was painfully clear to her as she chanced a look at her face. If it were any other day, she would’ve gravitated to her side at this very second. Currently, she was still hurt by how Elsa did nothing but keep to herself more, busying and drowning herself in paperwork. She didn’t even attend when they first mourned the loss of their parents with the rest of the kingdom.

The travel across on horseback had been tremendously helpful, giving her more time to get out of their sight before her group could notice she was gone. She managed to effortlessly slip past the watchful eyes of her guards, as they curtsied to the older princess until she retired to her room.

And Anna grabbed this wonderful opportunity to leave.

In the distance, she could already see the lake had turned into ice. Anna finds it rather convenient, as it served as a means to cross faster into the mountains. 

Hooves sink into the snowbank when they reach the end of the frozen lake, as they cantered off to follow the setting horizon. Finally, she was allowed with some time to herself.

The winds grazed her face, sharp and cool on her skin, eliciting a shaky exhale from her lips. And out comes a cloud of her breath, each time her lungs heaved, each step she strayed further from her home.

“Goodness, it’s cold out here.”

_“It sure is.”_

“It’s so cold I couldn’t even feel my face!” the strawberry blonde chuckled softly and agreed with the disembodied voice. She gripped the reins tighter, the leather of her gloves making a small squeaking noise as she did. It does little to warm her, but it keeps her knuckles from numbing all over.

The voice doesn’t respond to this, however, and Anna doesn’t really mind its absence.

“Stupid paperwork. They’re the reason why she’s like this, and probably why she’s pushing me away again,” an exasperated sigh was forced through her lips. She could’ve been inside, sitting by the warmth of the fireplace, had it not been for her running off at the sight of her barely present sibling. “If only I could get her off that desk…”

 _“And I bet she even skips sleep for it!”_ a voice suddenly interrupts her from her rambling.

“Yeah. And she— How would _you_ know?”

There was a moment of stunned silence. The princess was certain she was alone. No one seemed to be trailing behind her, so it was safe to say that there weren’t any people around. Had the voice she’d been hearing weren’t just voices in her head? No, it can’t be.

A part of her still believed she heard someone, somewhere. Her brain then clicks.

Would that mean her _horse_ was now capable of… speech?

“You could… _talk,_ boy?” In response to Anna’s question, the stallion rolled its eyes at her. The discovery made her gasp in amused delight. She lowers the lantern to his eyes, as if she could catch him actually saying something intelligible. “And all this time, you never told me—!”

Something snapped from the top of the tree branches where she instantly spotted a boy in tattered brown clothing. He flailed his arms about, trying to keep his balance, only to gracelessly fall down face first into the freezing pile of snow.

Moving her hand to light the source of the noise, with the lantern tight in her grasp, Anna was absolutely _horrified_ to see when the body hit the freshly fallen heap. _Right in front of her._ The mound exploded in a flurry of fine powder flying in the air as a stick directly landed on his head. She was at a loss for words, her jaw hanging open a little at the unmoving form of a boy.

Was he… _dead?_

“You-You heard me… talk?” the odd looking youth asked, equally shocked once they locked gazes.

Rolling on his belly, not bothering to brush the snow off his cloak, his eyes widened at the sight of the rider this deep into the stretch of the forest.

Up close, the boy appears to be no younger than herself. The tips of the silvery spikes of his hair were muffled by the rich, warm pink of the sunset glow. He’s young for someone with stark-white hair. But, as she peered into his pair of blue eyes, she just felt he was… _different_ somehow.

He recovers quickly, sharing an odd look with her steed. Anna then lets her brain process what he just said.

Okay, so it wasn’t the horse. Animals _can’t_ possibly talk! Of course she _knew_ that.

_(Of course.)_

“Yeah… _yes_ I did. And why’re you all the way up there where I can’t see you?” the girl instinctively held her shoulder and rubbed them for warmth. She would’ve made a disgusted face but her cheeks had apparently stiffened, that a pout was the only movement her face could allow her with. “Were you spying on me, you… you _creep?!”_

“This is _my_ place, lady,” the pale boy said in his defense, patting next to the empty space beside him, seemingly unharmed by the fall. He didn’t seem to take her accusations lightly. “Wouldn’t that make _you_ the creep here?”

“Oh, don’t turn the tables on me!” Anna’s face contorted into something reminiscent of a scowl, though he couldn’t really tell. Her face seemed to have been limited to a pinched frown and her brows could only convey whatever emotion she wished to express. Oh, how she was brimming with annoyance, and his mere presence irritates her to no end.

“I’m just saying I live here,” he said as a-matter-of-factly. Though his words hardly made sense as they rolled out of his tongue. Here? In the middle of the woods? Just as Anna dubiously arched a brow at him, his face falters as if he wasn’t confident about the truth himself. “…Sort of.”

This then brings her to the next thing bothering her. “Then how do you know about my sister?”

The boy cluelessly tilts his head to the side, the question completely lost on him. “Your _sister?_ ”

The ginger raised her voice at him, her suspicion still very much there. “Don’t play dumb on me! You said she even skips sleep!”

“I mean, I hardly sleep myself—” actually, he did it to play along. And _God,_ was he bored out of his mind.

“ _Okay,_ mister stalker who doesn’t like to sleep. How do you explain yourself then?”

“It was just a hunch. I never knew she doesn’t sleep for—what you said— _paperwork,”_ he righted himself up to sit so he could fix his outlandish white hair. Letting the powdery snow flutter and shake from his hair, he shoots her a confused look. “What _is_ paperwork anyway?”

“Well, it’s where you sign documents and do a bunch of things like approving trades to help improve ties between kingdoms,” she explained shortly, pulling her cloak tighter around her. Her breath came out in small clouds of smoke, her nose flushing red as it became unbelievably colder the second he appeared. “Did that help answer your question?”

“I… guess so?” he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as his mind slowly digested her words. “You look cold.”

In turn, Anna asks him the same. He must have been _freezing_ to death by now. “What about yourself?”

“No, it’s alright. It doesn’t bother me all that much.” he answered in a rather casual manner, easily brushing it off as if it was nothing to him.

Clearly, he was lying. Anna herself personally didn’t like being out in a weather like this, especially when the night creeps in. There was no way he could last any longer in the unbearable winter with the minimal clothes he had. The beginnings of frost patterns form at the base of his ragged shawl that fall past his shoulders, and he was _barefoot_ the entire time. (Was that normal?)

She’s surprised he hadn’t turned into ice or passed out from the subzero temperature. The slightest disdain she previously had for him vanished, and was immediately replaced with warmth and sympathy in her eyes.

“Let’s get you inside. I’m sure we have something warm for you back in the—”

“I appreciate your kindness, ma’am, but I am _perfectly_ fine.”

“Yep, I’m not buying it.”

Without another second thought, she hoisted him to his feet with strength he never knew she would have, all while she held onto her horse. Though, Anna could feel his arm practically ice-cold through his thin and soaking sleeve. He must have been out here for too long, the poor boy.

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

“I _insist,”_ again, the princess took him by the wrist as he instructed him how to mount the horse. He guessed he had no other choice but to comply, seeing as she showed no signs of giving up. “I promise you, kid, you’ll _love_ Gerda’s hot chocolate!”

Once he’s behind her, she starts steering her horse in the direction of the route she’d taken prior, so she could lead them back to the town. His hand then tries to find something to hold onto so he won’t slide off, and she notices this, yanking his arms to loop them around her waist.

The stranger tensed at the touch as if it made it burn his hand, but despite him resisting, she managed to make him clung onto the fabric of her cloak instead. Maybe it was because of the staff he’d been holding onto, why he struggled to steady himself. Anna then suppresses a shiver down her spine, and didn’t bring up the fact that he was as icy and cool as winter itself, knowing well how he needed a glass of hot chocolate by the fire, no matter how much he denies it.

“What was your name again?”

“Jack, I think…?” he said, as he tried to get his head around it. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure it’s Jack.” he finally confirms.

“A pleasure to meet you, Jack,” she threw a glance behind her back as the horse trotted along the tree lines. He could easily see her face morph into something less hostile, and the beginnings of a smile curl up her lips. “By any chance, are your parents in town?”

“Parents?”

“Oh…” a pang of sadness hits her at the realization that he probably lost or never even met his own set of parents. “Don’t you have one? A family?”

A silence lasted for a full five seconds between them, and Anna feels as if she made the wrong choice of bringing it up. Jack doesn’t seem to be too bothered about it.

“A family?” he repeated curiously, the word completely foreign to him. Suddenly, there’s a sinking feeling in his chest at the mention of it. To him, it didn’t mean a _thing._ Until now, at least.

“Ah, you really don’t know, do you?” the freckled girl asked as she eyed him pitifully.

Jack shook his head. “No, not really.”

“It’s kind of like being in a home with people who care about you and love you,” she supplied, forming up the words in her head to fully lay it out for him, doing her best to give him an inkling of what it meant. “Usually, there’s at least a mother and a father looking after the children. You can even have two moms, or even two dads! It doesn’t even matter whether you’re related or not; it’s all the same as long as you are loved and cherished.”

Jack marveled at the idea, and she could hear his small gasp. “Do you have a family? What’s it like?”

“I do. But my parents…” she hesitantly stopped, suppressing the urge to cry her eyes out for their recent passing. So, the princess leaves that part out, deciding to choose her next words carefully. “Let’s just say I only have my sister left.”

 _Oh._ Right, the sister she mentioned earlier, the one she wasn’t talking so fondly of. “So what’s the deal with your sister?”

“See, we never really _see_ each other as often,” there was a frustrated sigh following her reply. Jack can sense the inner conflict emitting from her voice. “I get a glimpse of her, sure, but we don’t get to play anymore. We used to, as kids, but…”

“But what?”

“It happened years ago, and next thing I knew, there’s this door in my face,” Anna’s lips curled into a frown and her gaze dropped to the unmarked path buried in heaps of snow. “We eat at different times, separate lessons. Heck, they don’t even let me talk to her!”

 _Maybe her sister was a lot like him_. “You sure this sister of yours even… exists?”

“What…?” her face was pinched in confusion, though he can’t see it from behind. “Yes! I know she _exists,_ for as long as I can remember!”

“Oh.” was the only thing he managed to respond with.

“But I’m hoping things will turn around. And maybe we could play again, just like old times.” the girl told him wistfully.

“I wish I had a sister,” he said longingly, and he shifts in his seat. His voice then suddenly transitioned into something of disdain. “Except for the shutting out part. I’d gladly pass on that.”

That was _low,_ even by her standards. “Hey!”

Even if there was no way of her seeing it, Jack raised his hands as if he meant no disrespect by it. “Just saying. Your sister sounded horri—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!”

“But… I thought you were mad at her?” Jack was startled by her change in demeanor, coming to her sister’s defense despite how upset she initially was of her treatment. This made things complicated to him now, and now he’s undecided whether or not he wanted any sibling _at all._

“Well, yes, but no, not really,” Anna grimaced, realizing that maybe, deep down, they really weren’t in a proper shape to deal with things. “We lost our parents to a storm, and… I think maybe we don’t know what to do about it.”

“Why?”

“You know, everyone is faced with a loss in their life. Not everyone is ready to accept it yet,” a soft sigh pushes past her lips; her voice taking on a serious yet understanding tone. It’s as if she was slowly learning the reason behind why she was shunned out so harshly this time around. “And people are hurt by it.”

“And when people hurt, they tend to hurt others back in ways they’re not aware of. Or that’s what they tell me.” Jack finished for her.

“Who—?”

Before the orphan boy could respond, the faint little town came into view. It was only then did Jack notice they reached the point of entrance. Soon, they were accompanied by the guards, which Anna regarded with a short nod and a polite smile. Their ride doesn’t stop until they are by these huge doors at the end of the cobbled path.

“It’s late. Kai’s probably looking all over for me.”

 _No shit._ They were escorted to the dead center of the city. She must be someone really important, Jack figured.

For the last couple of hours, majority of the guards and officers had been sent to retrieve her from the forest. The palace was alight with panic and distress as they frantically searched through and through.

“Yep.” the boy nodded to the castle gates, as her two loyal servants rushed towards her direction to welcome her back.

“Princess Anna! Where have you been? We searched everywhere for you!”

The boy’s eyes widened. A _princess?_ With that sassy and snobby attitude? _That explains a lot._ Jack guessed she perfectly fit the role.

“I was out in the woods, Gerda,” she said simply, removing her cloak off her shoulders to hand it over to the maid. “To clear my head—with a friend of mine, of course.”

As Anna climbs down to dismount from the saddle, she waits a little before he could assist Jack to descend the steep leather seat. He appreciates the gesture, but he was quick to descend the horse, landing perfectly on his feet as if he was light as a feather.

“What friend? You brought back a _stranger?”_ the family butler searches for said person, for anyone who had been following her. Confused, Kai double checks, as he was certain the horse only had one rider the entire time. Kai had no idea who the young princess could be referring to.

“He’s _freezing,_ Kai, I can’t just _leave_ him out there. He needs to get by the fire.” she gestures to the empty space by the foot of the landing.

Peering into the castle, careful not to trip over the steps and wind up on his face on the concrete floor, Jack grips his staff tightly. Anna beckons him over, sensing his discomfort at how easily he’d been dismissed and ignored by her attendants, as if he wasn’t even _there._

Kai’s brow creased in concern, brushing it off with a small chortle. “What do you mean? I see no fellow.”

“Hey! That’s a rude thing to say to a guest of mine.” Anna continued further down the carpeted hall as Jack quietly trails behind her, his head bowed and eyes casted down on the floor.

The family butler shook his head. “Princess, it’s dark. I understand that you are tired, having been outside for who knows how long.”

Anna laughed, and figured that they maybe playing some game of sorts. Jack was right behind her, his bare feet leaving wet imprints on the carpet—they couldn’t _possibly_ miss him.

“So _you’re_ saying I could see ghosts now? Hilarious, Kai!” Anna snorted. This boy—he _couldn’t_ be a ghost. He was there, and she could _swear_ she saw tears pooling against the walls of his eyes. He’s too _real_ to be one. If she remembers correctly, her hand didn’t go through his twig of an arm. That should be enough proof.

The head butler was about to say something but bit back his tongue, in fear of further offending the lady in front of him. Gerda spoke up instead. “I’m terribly sorry, Princess, but… I believe there is no one there.”

_How…?_

“I could only assume that you’re worn out from all the time it took to return… and considering the weather.” Kai deduced, wringing his gloved hands when the princess shook her head.

Gerda and Kai shared a worried look. There’s no denying that she’s paled from the prolonged exposure to the cold, her nose red and runny. She was in drastic need of a rest.

 _“No way._ How come you can’t see him?”

Jack was _right_ there—

“See _who_ exactly, Your Grace?”


End file.
